The Accidental Author

Chapter 2 - Let the writing commence: the early days

What does it mean to be a writer? What makes you want to become a writer or an author? It certainly isn't the image or cliché that is portrayed of a person who struggles to earn little if any money from their writing in whatever form it may take. Some would say that writing is a craft and a writer is someone who has the desire to write, having developed a passion for the written word. Others call it a vocation similar to nursing or being a doctor. Nowadays, since the e-book revolution commenced, many more people actively pursue writing as an occupation and career pathway. It is not always a lucrative or fast track one, but it is one which can be achieved independently using true entrepreneurial spirit. In the words of - Santha Rama Rau:

"Really, in the end the only thing that can make you a writer is the person that you are, the intensity of your feeling, the honesty of your vision, the unsentimental acknowledgment of the endless interest of the life around and within you. Virtually nobody can help you deliberately -- many people will help you unintentionally."

I have always loved to read romance novels, especially the large ones that you take on a foreign beach holiday. The kind of book that causes you to drift effortlessly into the fictional world created by the author when you lay in the sun reading. If the book is well written it allows you to immerse yourself in the lives of the characters and experience ultimate escapism. As a genre that I felt familiar and comfortable with, I assumed that my one 'book', my creation, would be a romantic fiction novel. Therefore as I reached the stage in my studies of planning and developing a novel to write, I placed all my hopes and dreams on creating something worthy of publishing in this genre. This would be a long tail project as my studies continued and time management became a major factor.

Anyone who has ever tried to combine professional study, a full-time job and parenting will know that it's a tough juggling act and one in which at some point one or more of the balls you juggle will be dropped. However, to achieve my writing dream, that's exactly what I needed to do in the early days. As a wife, mother, nurse and now wannabe author I knew that sacrifices would have to be made. Organisation and efficient time management would be the only way to achieve the results I desired.

To ensure that the word count of my romance novel, a work-in-progress, continued to grow I would get up at 5am each morning to write before heading off to my day job as an Injury Management Consultant for a global insurance company in Hobart CBD (Central Business District). My addiction to the writing process in all forms, which is exactly what it had become, was at times concerning, but ultimately fulfilling. After my morning fix in front of the laptop as Jaime and Nigel slept, I would make my way to work. However, even on the bus to the CBD the words and ideas would not stop. I found myself allowing them to spill out onto the previously unused memo and notes application on my mobile phone. In reality this was no bad thing as my writing target equated to ten hours a week. When I set myself that target ten hours sounded like a small insignificant amount of time in some respects. I equated it to how many hours I spent watching TV, reading or sewing in a week, activities that I could curtail in the pursuit of my writing dream, to make it achievable. I also wanted to treat it as a part time job to place a value on my writing time even though there was no monetary reward at this very early stage. However, the madness of the early hours was all consuming and I would all too often forget that I had work to do on my other jobs as a wife and mother, such as waking Jaime for school. I was multitasking to maximum levels. You could be forgiven for thinking that this extreme activity would cloud my brain and stop the creative flow, but no. I found ideas, twists and turns for my novel, while completing even the most mundane of tasks. The most concerning part of my writing addiction, for innocent bystanders being that everyone became a potential character or a source of inspiration. Endless notes became strewn over my desk at work; notes about people I observed in meetings, on the bus, or walking around the food aisles at Woolworths. Notes about situations I recalled, the places they were set and so it went on. As an Injury Management Consultant my role was to solve medical puzzles and decide strategies for injured workers to facilitate a return to work. I frequently found myself in a sudden panic, once settled at work, thinking that I had forgotten to put the coffee machine on and wake Nigel for work!

At last the weekend would arrive and I could devote my time to family pursuits and my writing. The weekend was study time, working on my creative writing assignments as well as my romance novel. In the name of research I asked my Facebook friends to share some of their stories of first love, enduring and tragic love for me to use in my novel or adapt into short stories to demonstrate my writing abilities to my tutor. Alongside the creative writing work my magazine assignment articles were being well received, therefore I bravely started sharing them with friends and family for some constructive feedback. It was early days, but the enjoyment was immense. I had so many ideas and projects to work on so to say it was exciting was a huge understatement.

When the time came to write the final magazine article assignment in my Diploma of Journalism, my interviews and research were complete and all that remained was to piece everything together by editing and inserting the appropriate photographs. On completion, the sense of satisfaction was immense. However, this soon changed to anticipation and anxiety as I waited for the results after submission. With my coursework complete and awaiting my results, I had more time to devote to my romance novel and it advanced by an average of 3000 words per week. I was extremely happy with this as a new writer with no sense or working knowledge of the time frames expected when writing a first draft. However I obviously I would have loved to write more words and more often.

As a reward for completing my studies for my diploma as Valentines Day 2012 approached my wonderfully tolerant husband booked a short break for us to Hervey Bay, Queensland. It was our first break away with no children or dogs for a very long time. It was amazing; perfect weather and a five star apartment overlooking the ocean with a jacuzzi on the balcony. It made me feel like a celebrity and we joked that one day my writing would pay for holidays like this. We enjoyed delicious food, outstanding views and friendly people. We swam in the ocean with summer whiting jumping around us and and for the first time we experimented with acupuncture and Chinese massage, which I highly recommend. As I promised to leave the laptop at home during our short break I was glad that I had taken my notebook because with so much time to sit and let my thoughts wander the ideas for future books and my final creative writing assignment were unrelenting. Luckily Nigel was supportive of my desire to write and willingly indulged my need to record all this valuable material during our quality time. Once home, I couldn't wait to get my copious notes onto my laptop and get back to my writing work, fully refreshed from the break.

As my novel developed and my courses reached completion suddenly, and for no apparent reason, a sense of negativity developed. My mind struggled with the fact that going to work in the CBD was like stepping away from my dream of being a writer. I was not giving my writing projects the time and attention that the day job received which seemed unfair, even though it was practical financially. However, one day while pondering this thought I suddenly realised that in fact that was not the case. I was fulfilling my dream and every dream worth pursuing has to chased before it is realised. Every day I moved a step closer to the dream finale of being a full time writer and published author. My desk diary contains daily quotations and as I prepared to leave one morning I glanced at the diary and the quotation said:

"Life without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing; every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves, this day let me make a sound beginning."

- Thomas Kempis

With these words circulating through my mind I headed off to the bus-stop with my Kindle prepared for reading a book on how to become a freelance writer. Another day begins. How many more days, weeks or years would I do this before I could officially say my job is that of an author or writer?